The Ghost of Paul Revere – North
North, the impressive debut CD of Portland, Maine-based The Ghost of Paul Revere, is an all-too-brief EP of what the band itself has dubbed “holler folk”—a robustly played, masterful amalgamation of bluegrass, folk, and gospel for the Millennial Generation. Over the course of six original songs—from guitarist Griffin Sherry’s earnest, tempo-changing “San Antone” to the gospel stomp of banjoist Max Davis’s “Spirit”—the band joyfully weds three-party harmonies to fresh and bracing melodies. Far from being folk purists—their live sets have included a roots-rock version of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice”—these guys frequently rock harder than any string band this side of Old Crow Medicine Show, whose “Wagon Wheel” they have also covered. Old-timey music never sounded like this.
“That old tree, it creeks just like your chair,” sings Davis on the gentle tune “Grandpa’s Chair.” “That old tree, it smells like autumn air.” The lyrics exemplify the evocative nature of the music itself, as earthy as it is ethereal, teasing the senses as it conjures up images of dilapidated farmhouses and hellhounds that “hunger for our meat (“Wolves”).” Though young, the members of Ghost seem to understand that darkness and light—a duality that has always characterized the best country and folk music—are mutually dependent, in art as in life. As the late Townes Van Zandt wrote, “There ain’t no dark till something shines,” a truism that obviously is not lost on songwriters Sherry, Davis, and Sean McCarthy, who also plays bass.
As the title of the EP suggests, fidelity to a beloved true north emerges as a recurrent theme here. “San Antone,” a paean to place and true love, soars with Sherry’s declaration that “my heart is in the Great White North,” while, in the haunting “Kodiak,” Davis cryptically sings “we’re all heading north.”
Sherry, Davis, and McCarthy grew up together in Buxton, Maine—not exactly a hotbed of indie roots music, but who says it has to be? While mountain music is often associated with the Deep South, the songs of Ghost remind us that the Appalachian Trail runs north as well as south. Like The Band, four of whose members were Canadian, The Ghost of Paul Revere prove that superior roots music can come from anywhere.